Say It in Style: Haikus Accompany Street Safety Signs

In a true melding of words and images, the New York City Department of Transportation has posted traffic signs that feature safety warnings in graphic and haiku form.

Two of the 12 signs are in Spanish; the other 10 are in English. All are designed to get noticed and get their warnings heeded. The images are large and startling, engaging your concentration enough to look in more detail, to the words below the images. And it is there that you find the haikus.

They are evocative yet simple, some with a touch of humor. For example, this one shows a woman obscured by darkness. She is clearly both in and out of the vision of anyone looking her direction. The text is thus:

She walks in beauty
Like the night. Maybe that's why
Drivers can't see her.

The words begin like a noble poem and end like a gentle barb.

A bicycle safety sign illustrates the common occurrence when a cyclist has to confront a suddenly opened car door. The image is descriptive enough without words, but the words give it even more poignancy (with a wry sense of humor and wordplay).

Car stops near bike lane
Cyclist entering raffle
Unwanted door prize

The signs are the product of the imagination of John Morse, who has done a similar thing in Atlanta. 

Morse is a collage artist known for his work The Color Spectrum in Fruits and Vegetables. 

He is sure to be more well-known now.